Does Your Team Know What Matters Most Right Now?

One of the quickest ways to verify this is to ask your team a simple question...

"What are your top three priorities right now?"

Then listen to what they have to say. If you ask four different people and get four different answers, you may have a problem.

You may have incredibly talented people who are committed, working hard, and making progress. But if everyone is climbing a different "mountain", all that effort isn't moving the team toward the same destination.

As leaders, we often assume our teams know what is most important because we know what is most important. We covered it in a meeting, sent it in an email, or talked about it during our 1:1. But communicating something once doesn't always provide the clarity you think.

Employees are juggling customer needs, deadlines, meetings, projects, and a growing inbox. Without clear direction, they are left to decide for themselves where to focus their time and energy.

Leadership Action:

Ask each member of your team to independently write down what they believe are the three most important priorities currently. Then, compare answers.

Are they aligned or are people focused on different things? The goal isn't for everyone to use the exact some words. The goal is to make sure the team has a shared understanding of what you are working towards. If the answers aren't aligned, that's important for you to know and it gives you an opportunity to reset.